Hope Grows For Commuter Rail

July 21, 1985

A VITALLY NEEDED tri-county commuter train for South Florida has just won an important vote of confidence from a U.S. House subcommittee. This is welcome news, but it is only the first tentative step on a long, uncertain road leading to opening of the rail service.

The vote to put up $12.5 million in low-interest loans came Thursday from the House transportation appropriations subcommittee. It is now part of an $11 billion transportation appropriations bill, which still must pass the full House and Senate before becoming law.

While ultimate approval is still iffy, at least now there is more reason to hope that the project will come to pass, linking West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and points in between. Officials hope to have it operating by January 1987 to carry 7,000 commuters each day, which is only a fraction of those who will be inconvenienced during a five-year program to add new lanes to I-95.

Broward, Palm Beach and Dade counties could not have gotten this far without an almost unprecedented show of unity, and they will need to continue a strong united effort to educate others in Congress to the legitimacy of this project.

For local congressmen, a tri-county commuter train is a necessary, useful, fully justified federal expenditure; for non-local congressmen, it could easily appear as a pork-barrel raid on the Treasury, unless their eyes are opened.

The commuter rail is no cure-all for local road congestion, but it is a desperately needed temporary bypass route during highway construction that, with time, could become an essential element of a growing mass transit network.